Sending a signature request

AutomaDoc Sign sends documents to people who sign them in their browser, on a phone or a computer. You upload one or more files (or pick a document AutomaDoc generated), say who signs and where, and send. Each signer gets a personal link. When everyone has signed, AutomaDoc stamps the signatures and values into the PDF, adds a certificate of completion, and sends the result to you and to everyone on the request. In the API a signature request is called an envelope (/api/v1/envelopes): it is the same thing.

What kind of signature this is

AutomaDoc Sign makes a simple electronic signature with an audit trail. The certificate records who signed, how they were reached, when they agreed to sign electronically, when they viewed and signed, from which IP address and device, and the SHA-256 fingerprint of every file. It is not a certificate-based digital signature of the signer. Most commercial documents can be signed this way, but some cannot: wills, family matters and court filings usually need another form of signature, and some official systems accept only signatures made with a certificate from a registered provider. Check what your document needs before you send it.

You send requests from the Sign section of the company portal, or from the API. To sign a PDF yourself, with nobody else involved, see Sign it myself.

1. Documents

A request holds 1 to 10 documents. Each one is one of:

• a PDF;
• a Word, Excel or PowerPoint file (.docx, .xlsx, .pptx). The type is read from the file itself, never from its name. Macro-enabled files are refused;
• a document AutomaDoc generated, from any source. Its file is copied into the request, so the request keeps its own copy whatever your generation retention is. The generation must be completed and its file still kept.

Every document is prepared before anyone can place fields on it. Preparation runs in the background and takes a few seconds for most files:

• a Word, Excel or PowerPoint file is converted to PDF, as a template’s output is;
• form fields and comments or other annotations are drawn into the page, so what is signed is exactly what is seen. Nothing on the page can be edited afterwards;
• links, bookmarks, attached files, scripts, layers and accessibility tags are removed, and the file is compacted. Every page shows the same in every viewer and on paper;
• page images are made: they are what you and the signers see.

The prepared PDF is the document everyone signs. Its fingerprint is fixed from that moment.

Note

A PDF protected with a password is refused, even one that only restricts printing or editing: remove the password and upload it again. A PDF that already carries a digital signature can be sent, but you are warned that stamping the new signatures invalidates the old one.

Limit
Documents per request	10
One uploaded file	25 MB
All uploaded files of a request	50 MB
Pages, all documents together	300
One prepared document	50 MB
All prepared documents of a request	100 MB

A document that cannot be prepared (too large, too many pages, damaged, a conversion that failed) is marked as failed with its reason. Remove it and upload a fixed file.

2. Recipients

A request has up to 20 recipients. Each one has a name and a role:

• Signer: fills their fields and signs. Every signer needs at least one field.
• CC: does nothing, and receives the signed PDF and the certificate by email when everyone has signed.

How each recipient is reached

• By email. AutomaDoc emails a personal link from “Your name via AutomaDoc”. Replies go to your own address.
• A colleague, a member of your AutomaDoc account. They are reached by Lark bot message if they use AutomaDoc with Lark, by email otherwise.
• By a link you pass on. Nobody is emailed. When you send, you get the person’s link and pass it on yourself, by chat, WhatsApp or any other way. The certificate says “Link shared by the sender”. AutomaDoc never sends reminders for this person; to give them a fresh link, send it again from the request (the previous link stops working).

Access code

Any recipient can be asked for an access code before the document opens. Type one (6 to 128 characters) or let AutomaDoc generate one per person (16 characters, shown to you once, when you send). Give the code to the person separately from the link, by phone or another channel: a link and its code in the same message protect nothing.

Five wrong codes lock the link. Sending the link again from the request gives the person a new link and lifts the lock. See Signing a document for what the signer sees.

Signing order

Each recipient has an order number:

• the same number for everyone: they all sign at the same time;
• 1, 2, 3: each signs after the one before has finished;
• mixed: 1, 1, 2 lets two people sign at the same time, then a third once both have.

A recipient later in the order is emailed only when their turn comes (“Your turn to sign”).

3. Fields

Fields mark where each signer signs or types something. They belong to signers only (a CC has none), and a request holds up to 500 fields.

Field	What the signer does	Default size (points)
Signature	Adopts a signature once (drawn, typed or uploaded); it fills every signature field of theirs	160 × 48
Initials	The same, for initials	64 × 40
Name	Starts with the recipient’s name; they can correct it	160 × 20
Date signed	Nothing: filled when they finish, in the request’s time zone and the signer’s language	110 × 20
Text	Types a value	160 × 20
Checkbox	Ticks it	14 × 14
Company	Types their company	160 × 20
Email	Starts with the address the request was sent to, which then cannot be changed	180 × 20

Every field is required or optional, and can carry a label of up to 100 characters, shown to the signer as its name. A text field can also have a maximum length (up to 1,000 characters), a check that the value is a number or an email address, and a starting font size. Typed values are printed in Noto Sans and shrink to fit their box. A field is never smaller than 8 points.

Fields are placed three ways:

• by hand, on the page images;
• from [[…]] tags written in the document, such as [[sign:Client]]. Each role a tag names becomes a slot you give to a recipient. See Placing fields automatically;
• from a saved layout: the same documents, the same fields, new people. The Free plan keeps 3 layouts, a seat or Pro any number, each up to 100 pages.

The API can also place fields next to text it finds in the document, called anchors.

4. Review and send

Before sending you set:

• Title, required, up to 200 characters. Emails show its first 120.
• Message to the recipients, up to 1,000 characters, optional.
• Expiry: 1 to 120 days after sending, 30 by default. Signers see the deadline in the request’s time zone.
• Reminders: every 3 days, up to 3 times, by default. You can choose every 1 to 30 days, up to 10 times, or no reminders.
• Certificate appended: on by default. The certificate of completion is added as the last pages of each signed PDF. Off, it is a separate file. It is made in both cases.

Anything that stops the request from going out is listed before you send: a document still preparing or failed, a signer with no field, a recipient with no email, a field off its page, an access code chosen but not set, too many pages or recipients. Sending is refused until the list is empty.

What happens next

• Invitations. Everyone whose turn it is gets their link. The email says the link is personal and must not be forwarded.
• Reminders follow your schedule, only to people whose turn it is and who have not signed. You can also remind someone yourself, at most once every 10 minutes per person.
• Every delivery re-issues the link. An invitation, a reminder, “your turn” or a link sent again replaces the person’s previous link, which stops working. Signers should use the newest email.
• Not delivered. If an email is refused or a colleague cannot be reached, you are told, and the person keeps the link they had.
• Declined. A signer can decline with a reason. The request closes for everyone and you are told, with the reason.
• Voided. You, or an admin of your account, can cancel an open request, with a reason. Everyone who had received it is emailed that it was cancelled, with your reason.
• Expired. A request not finished by its expiry date closes, and you are told. A request everyone signed in time is never expired, even if the signed PDF takes a moment longer.
• Completed. When the last signer finishes, the signed PDF is made, usually within seconds. Every recipient with an email address (signers and CC) then receives it: attached with the certificate when the files are under 3.5 MB together, otherwise as a download link valid for 30 days. You are told by bot message or email.

Each of these is recorded in the request’s audit trail.

The signed PDF and the certificate

Signatures, initials, typed values, ticks and dates are drawn into the page content of the prepared PDF. No form field or annotation is left for anyone to change.

You can download:

• each signed document, with the certificate at the end when it is appended;
• the certificate of completion on its own;
• with two or more documents, all documents in one PDF: every signed document in order, then the certificate when it is appended.

The certificate is in the request’s language, with English under each label when the language is not English. Times show their UTC offset. It records:

• the request: its ID, title, sender, when it was created, sent and completed, and its time zone;
• each document: its name, page count and three SHA-256 fingerprints, of the original file (what was uploaded or copied in), the document sent for signature (the prepared PDF everyone saw) and the signed document (before the certificate was added, since a file cannot hold its own fingerprint);
• each recipient: role, how they were reached, how their identity was checked (access to the link, or an access code), when they agreed to sign electronically, when they viewed and signed, their IP address and device (browser and system), and their signature and initials;
• the audit trail, event by event, and the audit trail hash: every event is chained to the one before by its SHA-256, so an event removed or changed afterwards breaks the chain.

Every “viewed” and “signed” event also records the fingerprint of the document the person saw. The fingerprint of each file as delivered is kept too: it is what the verify page checks. The footer of every certificate page says “Signed with AutomaDoc Sign”.

Retention

• Completed requests: the signed PDFs, the certificate, the original and prepared files and the audit trail are kept until you delete them. Page images and signature pictures are deleted 30 days after completion; the signatures stay in the signed PDF and the certificate.
• Declined, voided and expired requests: every file is deleted 90 days after closing.
• Drafts nobody touched for 30 days are deleted.
• You can delete a closed request’s files yourself at any time.

The audit trail is never deleted with the files. A request’s files are kept apart from generated documents: your generation retention never touches them.

Limits and abuse caps

A free signing service would be a phishing tool if it were open, so sending has caps. Windows are rolling, and every recipient counts, CC included.

	Free	A seat or Pro
Requests sent	3 an hour	No hourly cap
Recipients	20 a day (5 a day in the account’s first 24 hours)	1,000 a day

Free here means nothing pays for the sender: no seat of their own and no Pro. Requests sent from the API count as paid when a Business seat or Pro is in force. Contact support if you need more than 1,000 recipients a day.

Every email to a recipient ends with a link to report it (“Did not expect this email? Report it”). A report pauses all sending from the account, reminders included, until it is reviewed.

Pricing

• Sending a request uses one document from your monthly allowance, then from a document pack. One request is one document, however many documents, recipients and signers it has.
• A request whose documents were all generated by AutomaDoc costs nothing: the documents were paid for when they were generated. This holds the first time a generated document is sent; a generated document already sent in another request costs one document again. One generated document can be in only one open request at a time.
• A seat holder and Pro send requests without using the allowance. The caps above still apply.
• From the API, a request is charged as an automated document: Pro covers it, a Business seat draws on its automation allowance, and otherwise it uses the monthly allowance.
• Sign it myself is free and unlimited on every plan.

A request is charged when you send it and is not refunded if it is declined, voided or expires. When the allowance and packs are used up, sending is refused until you top up. See Plans, seats and packs.